Oliver Antes, Jr. 




L^^^e-T- <.yt<rrise4, ^Jt~. 



OLIVER AMES, J R - 

1895-1918 

BY M. A. DE WOLFE HOWE 

1 And in short measures life may perfect be" 




BOSTON 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1922 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY OLIVER AMES 



c^> 



THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON 

©CLA6S6638 



mi* 



List of Illustrations 



OLIVER AMES, JR. 



SPRING OF 1913 



AUTUMN OF 1913 



IN FRANCE 1917 



MEURCY FARM 



THE BROOK, MEURCY FARM 



Frontispiece 

Facing page 7 
10 
20 
76 
82 




1&13 



OLIVER AMES, J R - 
J* 

"A courteous kindly gentleman and a true soldier " 

THESE are the words that a corporal of the 165th 
Infantry wrote, in painstaking characters, on a 
wooden cross which he made from an empty ammu- 
nition box, and placed over a grave at Meurcy Farm, 
near Villers-sur-Fere, on the River Ourcq. Above 
this epitaph are the other words: 

Oliver Ames, Jr. 

2nd Lt. Inf. U. S. R. 

Killed in action, July 29th, 1918 

Act. Adjutant 1st Btn. \65th Inf. 

Close to this wooden cross another marked the grave 
of Joyce Kilmer, poet and soldier, who was killed on 
the day after Oliver Ames, under circumstances almost 
identical, in the volunteered personal service of their 
superior officer, Major (afterwards Colonel) William 
J. Donovan. The first of these young soldiers made no 
songs of his own, but left the memory of a life charged 
with that quality of beauty from which poetry is made. 

Oliver Ames, Jr., was born in Boston, April 8, 1895, 
the third child and elder son of Oliver Ames, of 



8 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

the Harvard Class of 1886, and Elise Alger (West) 
Ames. His grandfather, Frederick Lothrop Ames, son 
of Oliver Ames, Jr., was a graduate of Harvard in 
the Class of 1854, and from 1888 to 1893, the year 
of his death, was a member of the Harvard Corpo- 
ration. The boy, thus predestined to Harvard College? 
began his preparation for it at Noble and Greenough's 
School in Boston, and in 1907 entered the first form 
of St. Mark's School, Southborough, Massachusetts, 
where he remained through the six years of the school 
course. His record at St. Mark's gave him a high 
place in the annals of the School. For three successive 
years he was a " St. Mark's Scholar," and in his sec- 
ond form year "head of the school"; he served as a 
monitor; he took a prominent part in athletics, and in 
his fifth and sixth form years played on the football, 
baseball, hockey, and fives teams. 

Among his letters from school — the letters of a 
happy boy constantly giving happiness to his family 
and his friends — there is one unconscious document 
of boyhood that should be preserved. It was written 
to his mother after a football game: 

" I am awfully sorry I did n't see you at the game. It 
was wonderful we won, but I was so disappointed I 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 9 

did n't get in I could hardly bear to see any of you 
after the game. It was an awful blow to me, as I had 
expected to start the game in Harriman's place. Every- 
body told me I was going to start, and when my name 
was n't on the lineup I was sort of dazed, and it was 
much worse when I did n't get in at all. I felt so bum 
that I did n't go in the parade around town. You know 
the team is dragged around town in a wagon, with a 
brass band in front. But towards the end I went out 
to hear the cart speeches at the bonfire. (All the team 
are cheered, and they have to make a speech.) I hardly 
got out of doors when about twenty fellows pounced 
on me, and said Mr. Woodhead (coach) and McKin- 
lock wanted me in the wagon. I tried to escape, for I 
did n't see any reason why I should go in the wagon 
because I did n't make the team or get in the game, 
but they carried me to it and hoisted me in, and I had 
to make a speech. Then Mr. Woodhead got up, and 
made a speech about the eleven, and McKinlock, and 
then a whole lot of slushy rot about me. I'll let some- 
body else tell you about that. It cheered me up like 
anything, and made me feel wonderfully. I hope you 
don't think I 've got a swelled head, because I have n't. 
With much love, 

Ollie." 



i o Oliver Ames, Jr. 

His confirmation as a member of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church while he was at St. Mark's represented 
the genuine response of an element in his nature to 
the religious influences surrounding him and lastingly 
affecting his life. When he graduated from the school, 
its headmaster, the Rev. William G. Thayer, wrote to 
his parents: "As I look back over these past years I 
have cause to be glad that the boy has been with us, 
for his influence has always been for good and the 
earnestness of his purpose has been an example to us 
all." Five years later the same friend and teacher, on 
hearing of his death, wrote again : u Of all the boys I 
have known, no one has had a larger measure of my 
love and admiration. From the first day he came to 
St. Mark's until he graduated he gave his best. He 
was faithful in every duty, trustworthy in every rela- 
tionship, ambitious to succeed in studies and sports, 
always modest and unselfish, beloved by masters and 
boys — the School was a better place for his being 
here." 

At college Ames played on the freshman football 
and baseball teams, and, in his sophomore, junior, and 
senior years, on the second university baseball team. 
He belonged to the Institute of 1770, D. K. E., Stylus, 
S.K., Hasty Pudding, and Porcellian Clubs. He fixed 




tyt^oocorriyrL -OjU 7,913 



Oliver Ames., Jr. 1 1 

and followed for himself standards of personal con- 
duct which he did not preach to others — except 
through practice and the compelling influence of a 
peculiar personal charm. If he did not maintain to the 
end of his school course and through college the high 
scholastic standing which marked his earlier years at 
boarding-school, it was largely because of the shifting 
of emphasis in his interests — from books to friends. 
To be with them in Cambridge or on excursions into 
the surrounding country was an absorbing pleasure 
and satisfaction, in which they shared to the full. One of 
his most intimate classmates, also a kinsman, Richard 
Harte, wrote of him, for the Triennial Report of his 
Class, as he was in college: "We remember his qual- 
ities, the pleasure of being with him, his sunny and un- 
affected enjoyment of living, his unbounded vitality 
and enthusiasm, his instinct for the true things in life, 
and his ability to make us look from a higher point 
of view. An innate nobility marked him among his 
friends." 

As a member of the Harvard Regiment, and of the 
1916 Plattsburg Camp, Ames had learned the rudi- 
ments of military discipline when the United States 
entered the war, near the end of his senior year. In 
May, 1917, he entered the Officers' Training Camp at 



1 2 Oliver A?nes, Jr. 

Plattsburg. Two letters to his mother, written near the 
beginning and the end, respectively, of the encampment 
contain significant passages: 

" I 'm quite amazed at myself; in the last week I 've 
realized suddenly that I 'm becoming quite martial; 
our regular captain got his orders by code telegram 
to join his regiment abroad, and he 's left. As a result 
my excitement and enthusiasm for the trenches is un- 
bounded, and I 'm keen to go too; and the best part 
of it is that it 's not a morbid enthusiasm but a really 
constructive and happy enthusiasm; am pleased to 
death with myself; in fact so much so that if I don't 
get my commission here, at present I think I '11 vol- 
unteer in the militia, if I can arrange it, because it 
looks as if they were going to be sent over in Sep- 
tember or thereabouts, and will get in it long before 
the conscript army does. Are n't you delighted because 
now you won't have to stimulate your spoiled son's 
bravery by petting and fond words, probably the only 
thing heretofore that has enabled him to live a delight- 
fully self-satisfied and easy life. I 'm sorry, Ma, if I 'm 
being frightfully self-centred and self-analytical in the 
above, but is n't it a mother's duty to listen patiently 
to a son's dissertations on self ? I 'm afraid I 'm taking 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 1 3 

undue advantage of it. To be still further self-inter- 
ested, your suggestion of sending food coupled with 
an iron box belonging to Dick Harte and filled with de- 
licious delicacies has broken down my reserve strength 
to such a degree that I 'm writing you to suggest you 
send me up a nice box, with a cold chicken in it and 
a delicious chocolate layer-cake ; my mouth is l drool- 
ing' at the thought, but I don't want to be hypo- 
critical about it because we do get plenty to eat in 
camp, and it is only weakness on my part in an effort 
to live well, and as a result be happy (my happiness 
has always been based on stomach and the way in 
which I 'm treated); but be kind of careful, Ma, to 
send the box 'incognito,' in such a way that it will 
not be readily recognizable by avaricious soldiers, and 
please don't put it in a milliner's box like you did the 
blanket. 

"We're having a delightfully restful Sunday to- 
day; everybody is in good humor; everybody is shaved 
and bathed; only I wish I had more news for you." 

' ' Sunday 
"I look forward with dread to the next two weeks; 
commissions are to be decided pretty soon, and the 
strain and worry is terrific and promises to be worse 



14 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

in the coming fortnight; rumors are flying fast, and it 
is all one can do to keep oneself from believing them. 
I shall be glad when the camp is over solely because 
of the strain being over ; otherwise it 's great up here. 
It is evidently correct that every one up here is going 
to get something, and yesterday we were given printed 
papers on which to indicate our choices (1st, 2d, 3d, 
4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th choices) for the different branches, 
such as aviation, quartermaster department, ordnance 
department, etc., in case we did n't get our first choice, 
so it is evident that pretty nearly every one can get 
something if he wants it. We were asked, however, to 
cross out anything we would accept under no condi- 
tions. I crossed out everything except the regimental 
quota, the additional reserve officers, and another camp ; 
I could n't stand being an officer in the quartermaster 
corps or ordnance corps, I 'd much rather volunteer 
as a private or else be conscripted, and I wish now 
I 'd crossed out another camp. 

"The work is getting more and more interesting 
every day; this last week we dug trenches all week, and 
next week we 're going to take up bomb throwing; the 
last two weeks are to be devoted to that awful paper 
work and full of red tape but very important, also to 
the Court Martial Manual, which is very hard for me 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 1 5 

and overpoweringly stupid. The field work is great, 
though; you 'd be surprised to see the elaborate trench 
system we 've dug and actually under American offi- 
cers. Yesterday for three hours I put up barbed wire 
entanglements, and it is easy now to realize what a tre- 
mendous obstacle they must be. 

" Last week our captain made us all have our pictures 
taken so as to help him in his efficiency report, and I 
am sending you your son frowning in an effort to con- 
vince his captain that he is very much in earnest, and 
tough enough to 'break in' conscripts." 

At the conclusion of the Plattsburg Camp, Ames 
was commissioned second lieutenant of infantry and 
assigned to the 151st Depot Brigade at Camp D evens. 
From this he was transferred in September to Com- 
pany A, 165th Infantry, 42d (Rainbow) Division, 
then in training at Camp Albert L. Mills, near Mine- 
ola, Long Island. The 165th was formerly the New 
York 69th, a regiment that cherished with pride its 
traditions of Irish valor in the Civil War, and of recent 
admirable service on the Mexican Border. In u Father 
Duffy's Story," the spirited u Tale of Humor and Her- 
oism, of Life and Death with the Fighting Sixty- 
Ninth," its historian and chaplain alludes to his regi- 



1 6 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

ment as having been "selected to put the green in the 
Rainbow," the Division so called because its compo- 
nent parts contributed so varied a representation of 
states. Its own composition was indeed preponderantly 
Irish, and the resulting enthusiasm and belligerency 
were such that an officer with eagerness and courage of 
his own found himself working with the most responsive 
material. In "Father Duffy's Story" the inspiriting 
quality of the regiment stands manifest. The " Fight- 
ing 69th" had its poet — the true poet to which such 
a band of men was entitled — in Sergeant Joyce Kil- 
mer, and his comrades knew him as such. It had its 
valiant officers, among them Major Donovan, com- 
manding the 1st Battalion, with whom Ames was to 
come into such intimate personal relations as battalion 
adjutant that Father Duffy's picture of him before the 
regiment went overseas may well be given here: 

" Donovan is a man in the middle thirties, very attrac- 
tive in face and manner, an athlete who always keeps 
himself in perfect condition. As a football player at 
Niagara and Columbia, he gained the soubriquet of 
4 Wild Bill.' But that is tribute gained by his prow- 
ess rather than his demeanor. He is cool, untiring, 
strenuous, a man that always uses his head. He is pre- 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 17 

paring his men for the fatigues of open warfare by all 
kinds of wearying stunts. They too call him 'Wild 
Bill ' with malicious unction, after he has led them over 
a cross country run for four miles. But they admire him 
all the same, for he is the freshest man in the crowd 
when the run is over. He is a lawyer by profession, 
and a successful one, I am told. I like him for his 
agreeable disposition, his fine character, his alert and 
eager intelligence. But I certainly would not want to 
be in his Battalion." 

With Company A of this Battalion, Ames continued 
his training for the front until the regiment received its 
orders to sail overseas. The 1st Battalion left Montreal 
on the Tunisian, October 27, landed at Liverpool, 
and proceeded to Southampton, from which port it 
sailed for Le Havre on the night of November 11. On 
October 6 Ames had been married to Caroline Lee 
Fessenden, a daughter of Sewall Henry Fessenden, of 
the Harvard Class of 1886. The happiness and sense 
of responsibility that were thus added to his joyful and 
serious outlook upon life may only be suggested in 
this place. 

For about three months after reaching France the 
165th Infantry was in training in and about Naives- 



1 8 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

en-Blois, Grand, and, after a four-days' march in the 
bitter weather of late December, at Longeau, in the 
foothills of the Vosges.From the fragment of an " His- 
torical Appendix," begun by Joyce Kilmer and printed 
in " Father Duffy's Story," it appears that at the end 
of this march the men of the regiment, "as they stood 
in the deep snow, the ice-crusted packs still on their 
bruised shoulders," broke into the singing of " The 
Good Old Summer Time." This was not one of the 
instances which gave Kilmer such good reason to quote 
elsewhere in his Appendix the lines of Chesterton: 

For the great Gaels of Ireland 
Are the men that God made mad, 

For all their wars are merry 
And all their songs are sad. 

The service at the front to which the spirited prepa- 
ration of the 165th led up was, for the remainder of 
Ames's life, in the Luneville Sector, from February 
21 to March 23, 1918; in the Baccarat Sector, from 
April 1 to June 21; in the Esperance-Souain Sector 
from July 4 to July 14; in the Champagne- Marne 
Defensive from July 15 to July 18; and in the Aisne- 
Marne Offensive through the days beginning July 25. 
From passages from his own letters home — not the 
most intimate passages, too poignantly personal for 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 1 9 

print — and from the letters of others, the nature and 
quality of his work as a soldier, and the personal char- 
acteristics which made him so distinctive a figure in the 
eyes of those with whom he came in contact, may 
readily be inferred. 

On the day before reaching Liverpool he wrote, in 
a letter to his parents: 

"If you ever want to appreciate your family and 
friends, just try a three-thousand-mile trip across the 
ocean in a rotten little tub, a huge life preserver with 
you every minute, and a feeling every minute that you 
may have to swim for it, and the water looking oh ! 
so cold, to say nothing of the glorious future of par- 
ticipating in an allied drive in the spring which may 
bring you glory and martyrdom; I wonder how I like 
to be a martyr; my chief occupation on the trip has 
been one long attempt to persuade myself I '11 like it." 

Landed in France, he wrote cheerfully from an offi- 
cer's club, where one of his friends was " trying out 
his French (and it's awful, too)" on a French offi- 
cer: "I'm going over in a minute to join him, and 
I 've got a speech all planned. I shall start out with 
Je parle le francais aussi, mon vteux; je parlais 



20 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

autrefois un peu quand je fus jeune.' How 's that, 
Ma, do you think I '11 get away with it ? . . . Mes 
sentiments bien respectueux d votre mari y et tous les 
petits Jils andjilles" 

In less than two weeks he was writing again: 

" Sunday , November 25 
" I wonder if K. told you that I 'm now in a different 
town, about 12 miles away from my old one, in com- 
mand of a fatigue detail of 62 men; Major Dono- 
van was darn nice to let me have it, and if I don't 
manage it well I shall never be able to look him in 
the face again. It is hard work but wonderfully in- 
teresting for me because at last I 'm on my [own] 
hook, and have a lot of responsibility in comparison 
with what I had before. So far things are working 
out pretty well, but I don't dare preach till I'm out 
of the woods. You 'd laugh to see your son sitting in 
his room before a table covered with official papers 
(most of them for effect), with his four corporals 
and sergeant standing stiffly at attention before him, 
while every night at 5.30 he gives them hell, or en- 
couragement, and his orders for the morrow. It is 
great fun having an independent command, and I 




^sT-cLruee 7S1T 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 21 

feel as proud as a general. Perhaps you may not 
believe it, that your son is sanitary, but the very first 
thing he did on actively taking command was to march 
his men with soap and towel in hands down to the 
French shower baths, and personally see that every 
man took a shower, the first they had had since leav- 
ing Mineola four weeks before. 

"My French is getting excellent; I'm getting so 
self-confident in it that I 've got to the stage of ad- 
dressing young ladies with ''Mais vous etes charmante, 
Mademoiselle^ with such astounding results that I 've 
found it necessary to retrace my steps for safety sake; 
I always knew I had a charming accent, the French 
girls all fall for it; to-morrow I shall try out a couple 
of Vs' with a rolling accent. I like the French, 
they ' ve been very nice to us over here; the tiny little 
kids are wonderfully cunning; the trouble is they (the 
French) talk a little too much without saying much, 
and always when you're in a hurry, and they're so 
polite about it that you've got to be polite while all 
the time you 're boiling within yourself." 

" Thursday, November 29 
u Do you realize that to-day is the first Thanksgiving 
but one that I have not had at home for the past 



22 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

twenty-one years; it does n't seem like Thanksgiv- 
ing at all; to-night, however, we're (three officers and 
myself) going to have a turkey for supper, but it 
won't taste half as good as the one at home, and 
there'll be no plum pudding, lobster salad, or pies; 
I wonder if O. hunted this morning. It doesn't seem 
but yesterday that Dick Harte and I spent that bully 
Thanksgiving out at North Easton, do you remem- 
ber, when we went out hunting, shot a little bluebird, 
and felt terribly all the rest of the day. I guess I 'm 
getting a little too sentimentally reminiscent; it is an 
awful temptation, but a fatal one. 

" My detail here is getting along satisfactorily. The 
men are still working like Trojans and are doing 122 
men's work instead of 62 men's work. We are still 
sloughing around in the mud, unloading freight cars, 
assembling wagons, and taking care of mules; how 
long the detail will last I don't know, perhaps four 
days, perhaps a month; in the meanwhile I have these 
62 men to take care of, and I hope and pray I'm 
doing it well. To-day I heard indirecdy that Col. 

said my men were doing great work, and I feel 

proud as a peacock at present. I can't resist telling it, 
though; I'm afraid I'm not a very noble character; I 
like singing or rather hinting my own praises too much. 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 23 

" This town I 'm in is just like the ones I 've read 
about in Dumas, and always been crazy to visit; from 
my bedroom window I can see a remnant of an old 
tower and of the old fortified town wall, and the 
irony of it is that I have n't possibly the time to ex- 
plore it, which I'm crazy to do. I breakfast at 7.15; 
work till 11.30; 11.45-12.30 lunch; 12.30 I inspect the 
men's quarters; 1—4 work; 4-4.45 visit the sick men in 
my detachment in the hospital; 5-5. 30 wash for supper: 
6-7 supper; 7-7.30 help the man in the post-office sort 
the mail in hopes for a letter from home; 8-8.30 re- 
turn to room where my sergeant meets me and go over 
to-morrow's work and make out the various reports 
that have to be made out; 8.30-9.30 censor the men's 
letters which come in in perfect floods and absolutely 
swamp me with work; 9.30 bed, dead to the world. 

"I'm writing now in the Y. M. C. A., a bully 
organization and a blessing for the men, their only 
recreation place. . . . 

" Some of the men got mail to-day marked the 28th 
of October: perhaps mine will come soon. When it 
does, I 've got all my plans laid for what I 'm going 
to do, i.e., am going to read one letter a day so as 
to have always something to look forward to the next 
day. I'm terribly excited at the prospect. 



24 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

"A lot of officers from my battalion have gone away 
to officers' school, and when they return all the others 
will go, so I expect I '11 be with the last bunch: I'm 
rather looking forward to it as it ought to be wonder- 
fully interesting, and rather a change in the routine." 

Writing to his wife on December 5, Ames described 
a Canadian major's talk at the Officers' School about 
the fight at Vimy Ridge, making him "wild to get 
into it at once. ... I feel so enthusiastically young 
and inexperienced. It's the first time since I left home 
that I 've felt really enthusiastic about anything." 

" Sunday , December 9 

" My detail at finished yesterday, and I hiked 

my men back over the road, and thank the Lord I 
was able to turn all sixty-two of them over to their 
Company Commanders without one missing; now 
I 've had a relapse, all responsibility ceasing and noth- 
ing but company duty to attend to. To-morrow we 're 
moving out of here, and to-night I was detailed to 
go ahead of the battalion on the march and arrange 
for billets for the night; I shall have sole responsibility 
for procuring billets for one thousand men and thirty 
officers, and I foresee a lot of work. 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 25 

" We've had a lot of snow the last week, and it has 
been a blessing as the ground is frozen over, whereas 
before it was one mass of mud; a lot of men and of- 
ficers have had bad colds, but on the whole every one 
is very well. About half of the officers in the regiment 
have gone to schools, and when they come back (about 
three weeks from now) the rest of us expect to go, 
and I 'm crazy to go as it promises to be wonderfully 
interesting. 

" I drove over in a buggy to see Archie R. to-day 
and had lunch with him, and drove back this afternoon 
in time for retreat; we talked over old times, and got 
quite homesick. I did n't tell you that after hiking 
back yesterday, I found a whole batch of letters wait- 
ing * for me. ... I was so excited I actually trembled 
all over." 

"Saturday, December 15 
"Ma, I'm going to scold you now: you mustn't 
stay in the house all day, it's darn bad for you and 
you know it. Promise me you will take an hour's 
brisk walk every day, once in the morning and once 
in the afternoon; you can leave the house, walk up 
Commonwealth Avenue, then down Massachusetts 

* Including one from "Mike, the ground-keeper at Soldiers Field." 



26 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

Avenue as far as the Esplanade and back home by 
the Esplanade. It will make you feel 100 */<> better, 
and I'll guarantee in a week you'll be eating five or 
six baked potatoes a day, not to speak of potato soup. 
Ma, please promise you'll take some exercise and 
you '11 see if you feel better; if you don't, then you 
can take it out of me. . . . Now, Ma, remember 
you've promised to take a lot of exercise, so I expect 
a report from you on its result." 

In a letter written two days later to his wife, Ames 
expressed himself with conviction and force on the 
vital part the American soldier and the American 
people were to play in the winning of the war — with 
u ships and more ships and still more ships" with 
"speed, but not speed at the sacrifice of system and 
forethought," — and revealed his own modesty and 
intelligence in the words : 

"Perhaps I 'm speaking like an inexperienced child; 
perhaps I should let things take their due course, and 
they will come out all right ; perhaps I 'm taking the 
weight of the world on my own shoulders — but I 
want to see this war end soon. France has suffered quite 
enough, England has, too, and they will continue to 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 27 

suffer till the day Germany has visible evidence that 
we are in the war to see it through, and that day will 
never come till American ships swarm over the At- 
lantic, and two or more million men fully equipped, 
supplied, and trained have their own sector in the bat- 
tle line; till that day comes Germany will laugh at us." 

Also to his wife he wrote on December 23 : 

" I was delighted when you quoted Mrs. as say- 
ing that my men liked me; it was a great compli- 
ment, but the test has not come yet. It is easy enough 
in peace time, when you ' re young, healthy, and full of 
enthusiasm, to put enough zip in your work to have 
your men respond; the real test, however, has not come 
yet. When I have been the first man in my platoon 
over the top, when I have led them intelligently across 
' No Man's Land' and have gained my objective and 
insured it against recapture, then and not till then will 
I feel deserving of taking care of such men as I have 
in my platoon. It is my greatest ambition, and the 
highest ambition any young officer should have ; it is 
the final result that counts. I 'm so glad I 'm in the In- 
fantry; perhaps it does n't take as much brains as the 
artillery, but it is the fighting branch, the branch that 



28 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

undergoes the hardships and losses, the branch under 
which you come into such close relationship with your 
men, they rely so much on you that it makes you feel 
unworthy of such trust and so keen to justify it." 

The letters to his mother go on: 

" I was thinking to-day of you tying up bundles in 
the 'present room' in Boston; I remember how I 
used to love to see you in there when I came home 
anywhere between five and seven. Ma, it 's funny how 
you never appreciate the good times you used to have 
till they are a thing of the past. As I think them over 
now, my four years in college were the pleasantest 
years of my life, not so much for the college part as 
for the home part; you and Pa were so wonderful to 
me, so wonderful that I absolutely used to long to 
come home every night, and all my day at Cambridge 
used to be but a 'marking of time' till I could go 
home for the night. You were much too nice to me, 
you used to let me talk much too much, but I used to 
have such a good time talking (and mostly about my- 
self, I 'm afraid) that you must have smiled to your- 
self. I shall always look back on tea at five o'clock as 
the pleasantest hour of the day; and when I came back 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 29 

from Cambridge at five and found everybody out I 
used to feel so disappointed because there was nobody 
to talk to, and you were n't there to listen in your 
sympathetic way to your egotistical son, and he was 
very, very egotistical, too; but if he ever gets back 
you '11 never know him; simply because a year or 
more's absence from home under war conditions has 
taught him the true value of home life and the awful, 
awful longing for it. Ma dear, if this war ever gets 
over, all the rest of my life is going to be spent in try- 
ing to make you and K. happy; somehow I feel much 
older, once I thought time could alleviate anything on 
earth, but — " 

" Monday, December 24 
" It does n't seem possible that a year ago to-day at 
about this time we were starting out to go up Beacon 
Hill and listen to the carols, and see the candles in the 
windows; it makes me homesick to think of it; and 
here I am in a little town in France writing home by 
candlelight. Just through the walls of my room (very 
thin walls) is the barn where about forty of the men 
are billeted. They seem to be homesick, too, because 
I can hear them singing, and the most mournfully 
sentimental songs; and I don't blame them, Ma, be- 



3<d Oliver Ames, Jr. 

cause no matter how hardened to it, no man will ever 
become hardened to spending Christmas Eve in a cold 
barn with nothing but straw to sleep on and no lights 
to see by, and thousands of miles from home. I speak 
warmly chiefly because we officers have so compara- 
tively a luxurious time compared with the enlisted man : 
we have an open fireplace to keep us warm, we have 
warm kitchens to eat in, we have our 'strikers' and 
orderlies to take care of us, and all the time we 're not 
one iota better men than the enlisted men, only we 
were lucky to be able to go to an officers' training 
camp and get commissions. The enlisted man is the 
man to be admired in this war; the infantrymen bear 
the brunt of all the hardships, and, Ma, you don't 
know what wonderful letters they write home; I 've 
been censoring them all day, and honestly I 've had 
tears in my eyes more than once. 

" I 'm beginning to think more and more that we 
should have entered this war at the very beginning; 
over here the war is brought home to you so strongly; 
the sufferings France has gone through, the absence of 
men of my age from the towns, everything points out 
that it was our duty to step in and strike while the iron 
was hot, and untold sufferings and slaughter would 
have been averted, and the war would be at an end by 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 3 1 

now. However, it is n't too late, though God knows 
we're just in time. Our influence so far has been but 
a drop in a bucket, we're of no assistance save 
morally just now; it will be a long, long pull, lots and 
lots of us will be killed, but if we stick to it and 
stick to it, we 're going to win in the end even though 
it takes twelve years. It is not for a young 2d Lt. to 
direct the policies of nations, but if I were President 
Wilson now, I would put Mr. Roosevelt in charge 
of ship construction, Mr. Goethals in charge of mu- 
nitions, Mr. Hoover in charge of national conserva- 
tion, and I would not interfere with them ; I would 
not 'tie their hands' by commanding they should 
have advisory boards appointed by me; I would let 
each do his own organizing, and trust to his patriot- 
ism to overcome any personal ambition he may have. 
In that way we will get ships, in that way we will get 
provisions and munitions; and when we have ships and 
provisions we can send over troops, enough troops to 
be of some assistance to our allies, and ultimately enough 
troops perhaps to turn the tide. When people in U. S. 
begin to realize what we 're up against, that the Ger- 
man is not on his last legs and not making a final 
desperate effort before suing for peace; when the casu- 
alty list grows larger and larger each day; then per- 



32 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

haps public opinion will render a bold programme 
easier of adoption, then perhaps our politicians will 
cease clogging the wheels of organization, and then per- 
haps red tape will be done away with; and we will have 
hundreds of ships carrying our National Army, fully 
equipped and supplied, over the Atlantic, to be poured 
into trenches in France, in Italy, and if needs be in 
Russia. Not till then, not till we have at least two mil- 
lion men in the front line trenches equipped and sup- 
plied, is Germany going to give up her policy of at- 
tempting to paralyze our allies' effectiveness by plots and 
propaganda, or give up resistance to the allies' efforts 
to drive her back from French soil; and it is indeed a 
task that will take years and years of desperate fighting 
to accomplish. However, I think we're taking steps in 
the right direction; we're going to have a disciplined 
army at any cost; our divisions over here now are going 
to make mistakes — mistakes are inevitable at the be- 
ginning ; but those of us that are over here now, insig- 
nificant as we may be in numbers, by our mistakes are 
going to prepare the way for future efficiency; and it 
will be a sacrifice that we should all be proud to make. 
Your son, however, though he likes to talk along noble 
lines, though he attempts to persuade himself with resig- 
nation for the future, nevertheless is not one-quarter 



Oliver Ames, Jf. 3 3 

as much a martyr as he is trying to make himself out, 
and he would give both legs gladly if he could only be 
home now safely with his wife and family with noth- 
ing to separate him from them all the rest of his life; 
and he loves them all more than he can possibly tell 
them." 

On Christmas morning he wrote again, "looking for- 
ward to a delightfully lazy day with nothing to do ex- 
cept sit in front of the fire. I 've planned out my day: 
read 'The Talisman' till 1.30, then wonderful tur- 
key lunch, then read again till 6, supper, and read over 
old letters till bed-time. Is n't that a lazy programme ? 
Only I 'm scared of the last part of it, as I 'm sure to 
retire in tears. I can't help missing every one terribly 
this morning." Christmas Days past and to come filled 
his mind; but he went on: 

"We move again to-morrow on a long hike to our 
final destination; we are all glad because we have been 
here now two weeks with nothing but the clothes we 
have on our backs, and perhaps when we get to our 
final destination we can have a bath and new clothes. 
It's funny how used you get to being dirty. I 'm posi- 
tively filthy except for outward appearances, but I 'm 



34 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

so much better off than most even though I have n't 
had a bath now for five weeks. I can hear you groan, 
but if I 'm dirty, Ma, three-quarters of the French 
people in France are positively disgusting; I '11 bet you 
three-quarters of them don't take more than one bath 
a year, and at that I 'm judging them leniently. I 've 
been searching ever since I 've been here for a bath- 
tub, but so far have neither found one or heard of one 
save at the Ritz in Paris." 

After the long winter "hike" to which reference has 
already been made, Ames wrote to his parents : 

" Sunday, January 6, 1918 
" We 're now in a new place, comparatively modern 
compared with the old one; all the officers are living 
in an old chateau, which must be delightfully cool in 
summer, but in winter it 's like an ice-house. You 'd 
laugh if you could see us every night going to bed at 
7.30 simply because it 's too cold to stay up, and bed 
is the warmest place there is; in a week or so we '11 
have stoves, added to the fact that the Captain, Elmer, 
and I are moving out into much nicer rooms to- 
morrow. 

"I did n't tell you, did I, that last week I went over 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 35 

to , where I ran into Ted Lyman in the Y. M. 

C. A.; he was just the same as usual, sitting in the cor- 
ner reading a newspaper and looking as wise as an old 
owl. Had a wonderful time there; had a bath and was 
so excited about it that I almost telegraphed the news 
home to you — just think, a bully big bathtub full of 
hot water; we splashed around in it for about an hour ; 
but the damnable part of it was that we did n't feel a 
bit cleaner afterward, and we were furious. To-day I 
had my 'striker' give me a shampoo; we heated some 
water over the fire, and then he poured the water over 
my head. It 's been the most wonderful day to-day you 
can imagine, cold and crisp and sunny, but your son 
is becoming an awful old woman and sits in front of 
the fire all day long when he is n't working. 

"Do you know, Ma, I 'm just beginning to realize 
why officers on coming home on leave want to raise 
so much Cain; it does n't appeal to me very much, but 
I can appreciate their viewpoint: it 's being cut off for 
so long from civilization and from amusements, from 
news from the outside world. You get sick to death of 
getting up at 6.30, working all day till 4.30, then sup- 
per at 5, officers' school from 6 to 7, then bed, and the 
same thing over day in and day out with no relaxa- 
tion except when, once a month or so, the mail comes 



36 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

in, but then it is so wonderful and every one is happy. 
I know that if I drank at all, and that if I did n't have 
a wife and family at home to keep me on the level, 
there would be nothing on earth that would keep me 
from raising h — if I ever got into a big town. I 
would n't tell you that if I thought it would worry you, 
but I thought it might interest you as a viewpoint com- 
ing from a disinterested person. Of course I deplore 
the tendency of officers to celebrate publicly, it is in 
very bad taste indeed, but I can sympathize with the 
desire of relaxation if properly 'camouflaged' and if 
they have no ideals to live for. I can't help smiling 
when I think how wonderfully and awfully applicable 
to all of us over here is the motto, 'Dum vivimus viv- 
amus'; what a loophole it is, and what a chance to 
live up to these ideals. I 'm getting to be a cynic, are n't 
I, Ma ? Forgive me, because I 'm really just as impres- 
sionable as ever, just as healthy, just as fresh, and just 
as homesick; my only relaxation consists of reading 
over old letters from home, and I 'm afraid I don't live 
up to my principles because I can't ' camouflage' my 
emotions, and get very weepy over them. I don't think 
I '11 ever get over being a baby as far as home is con- 
cerned, but I don't care because I love you all so much 
and miss you so frightfully." 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 37 

On January 27 he wrote of his promotion to the ad- 
jutancy of his battalion, as a modest knight might tell 
of his accolade, proud of its bestowal by the leader 
under whom he was to serve, and soberly conscious, for 
those he loved, that with greater responsibility came 
greater peril. 

" Since I wrote last a lot of things have happened which 
K. has probably told you already. In the first place, one 
day I was transferred to the Supply Co., as the Colo- 
nel said, because the Supply Co. needed a good offi- 
cer to run the Co. end of it, but which your son in- 
terpreted as a lot of ' bull.' For four days I spent a 
most miserable time, I hated my job, my ambitions 
were so set to be in the line, in the infantry with han- 
dling of troops, that I thought I would commit sui- 
cide even though I did run the Co. end with 180 men 
under my personal direction. (You see, the other two 
officers of a Supply Co. are always off on the search 
for provisions, etc.) Two days afterwards, however, I 
was transferred back to the 1st Battalion because Capt. 
McAdie and Major Donovan had kicked to the Colo- 
nel till he finally gave in; and what do you think the 
Major then did, he made me his adjutant, which is the 
greatest honor I 've ever had; it could n't be so great 



38 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

with any other major but Bill Donovan, but he, to my 
mind and in fact to every officer who really knows him, 
is the 'livest' officer in the American Ex. Forces, and 
some day when people at home begin to hear about 
him you ought to be proud that your son was once 
his adjutant. Perhaps you wonder why, if he is such a 
'live wire,' he is not more than a major; the answer 
is that for the last two months general headquarters 
have been trying to get him on the staff, but he hates 
the staff and has his heart set on having the best bat- 
talion in the U. S. Army, and with the most wonder- 
ful management has succeeded in 'ducking it,' at the 
same time keeping in good graces. I 'm awfully afraid, 
however, we '11 lose him soon, which would be a ca- 
lamity. You'd laugh to see your son work now; he 
never gets to bed till 12 or 1 in the morning, and all 
day long his mind has to keep jumping at tremendous 
speed to attain the standard his major expects of him. 
After the first four days I was really all in, I was so 
unused to the speed. Donovan has a wonderful mind, 
the result of years of training, his energy is untiring, 
his personality is the strongest I 've ever come in con- 
tact with, and with it all he combines the most con- 
summate tact. Martin was telling me the other day 
that ever since a small boy the major has been sue- 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 39 

cessful in everything he has undertaken: he was a foot- 
ball star at Columbia, then he practised law at Buffalo 
and made a great name for himself. At Buffalo he or- 
ganized a cavalry troop recognized as about the best 
in the country; he was one of the N. Y. men who pro- 
moted the Plattsburg camps; when the war started he 
was recommended by a board of officers to be the 
colonel of the 165th Infantry, but the regulation pro- 
vided for a regular army colonel, so he missed out. 
In the regiment he has organized the best battalion, the 
best battalion in the brigade our Brigadier- General 

says. When the school at was over three weeks 

ago, which Donovan attended as a pupil, he was or- 
dered to stay there as an instructor in tactics for the next 
school; he thought he was lost, but our division com- 
mander telegraphed to general headquarters, A. E. F., 
and got him transferred back to the division. His one 
weakness, to my mind, is his ambition; it has no limits, 
and I 'm afraid he may overreach himself: not that he 
can overreach himself as far as ability goes because he 
can't, his ability is tremendous, but with conditions as 
they are now over here, with every inefficient officer 
fighting to cover himself up, with no system yet de- 
veloped, with more or less jealousy between officers of 
the regular army, National Guard and Reserve, with 



40 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

ability rather held in suspicion than recognized, to my 
mind he may run his head against a rock. Somebody 
told me if ever he got back alive from this war he 
would be sure to be governor of New York, because 
they wanted him to run last year. 

"Perhaps you're wondering from this eulogy 
whether I 'm returning to my school-day hero-worship 
days, but I 'm not quite that bad; my idea is to show 
you what I 'm up against, what heights I have to at- 
tain with a mind that has rusticated now for some eight 
years in athletics, theatres, and other luxuries. The most 
wonderful part of it is that he lets me run the battal- 
ion to a certain extent, has given me a lot of respon* 
sibility which keeps me busy night and day; but, Ma, 
though he expects you to work your head off for him, 
he is just as thoughtful as he can be if you 'deliver 
the goods,' so to speak. He has recommended me for 
a 1st lieutenancy, which I '11 never get because the regi- 
ment has its full quota, but just the same it makes me 
very happy; he told me last night he 'd be very disap- 
pointed in me if I was n't a captain a year from now, 
which made me very swell-headed. 

"We live in great style; the major's 4 striker,' who 
used to be Colonel Astor's valet, takes care of me, and 
every night my bed is turned down, and my pajamas 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 41 

laid out; we have lunch and all meals in the major's 
room, waited on by the faithful Kayes, who somehow 
procures from nowhere the most wonderful meals im- 
aginable. We 've had a lot of interesting people drop 
in on the major for lunch, several officers from Head- 
quarters, A. E. F., in fact every one from a general 
down." 

The occurrences that led to the enlargement of Ames's 
opportunity for service under the officer he so greatly 
admired are related in a recent letter from Colonel 
Donovan himself. 

" I recall very distinctly the circumstances leading up 
to Ollie's being sent to Vaucouleurs. Vaucouleurs was 
the headquarters of the Division. We were stationed 
at a little town called Bove*e. There had been sent to 
the Division the parts of army wagons with which to 
equip the entire organization. Of course these parts 
had to be assembled. My battalion was called upon 
for a detail — I believe of sixty men. I took a num- 
ber of men from each Company and sent them on to 
Vaucouleurs under an experienced officer. The work 
was very hard. Most of these men were the toughest 
men of their respective companies. This officer became 



42 Oliver A?nes, Jr. 

ill. The non-coms, did n't handle the men very well, 
and information then came to me that there was a 
very poor standard of work and discipline main- 
tained. 

" I remember word came to me the nightwhen OUie 
had a call from young Archie Roosevelt, who had 
just been on a raid with the First Division and had 
stopped in to see Ollie. I went to Ollie's billet, as at 
that time he was not my adjutant, but was second 
lieutenant, Company A. I told him about the serious 
condition of this detachment, and that it was a big job 
to handle, but I was selecting him to go because I felt 
he would have the courage and intelligence to take 
hold of these men and to see that the work would be 
properly done; that because it was a hard task, it was 
a good opportunity for him, and that I wanted him 
to make them do it. He went down there and a week 
later, when I was on my way to the Field Officers' 
School, I stopped at Vaucouleurs and made an inspec- 
tion of his detachment and his billets. 

"He had done a really fine job. He had obtained 
new clothing and equipment for his detachment. The 
men's billets were in good order and well cleaned. 
There was a good spirit among the men. He was get- 
ting food for them, and all of the Divisional Staff offi- 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 43 

cers with whom I spoke were most commendatory of 
the way in which the work was being handled. 

" It was as a result of his work there that I selected 
him then as battalion adjutant." 

After Ames had been serving in this position for about 
two months, Major Donovan wrote to Ames's wife: 

" Please accept an abrupt but sincere word about your 
husband. 

" He has endeared himself to the battalion officers 
and men. His work is done well, conscientiously, and 
tactfully. He is enthusiastic, full of energy and spirit. 

" We have been together in stress. There is no doubt 
of his courage and more — his good sense. He has 
been recommended for promotion both to regimental 
and division headquarters. He is known and respected 
in both places. 

" Be proud of him. One day we shall send him to 
you full of health and honor." 

There is plenty of evidence that the men who served 
under Lieut. Ames realized their good fortune and 
warmly reciprocated his concern for their interests. One 
of his letters has already revealed his feeling about the 



44 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

enlisted man. It is well illustrated by an incident related 
by one of his dearest friends at school and college, 
also a young officer in France. Only once they met 
there, to lunch together. The friend had been looking 
forward eagerly to the meeting, and was in high spirits. 
Ames was preoccupied, talked of the unfairness that 
officers should be lunching in comfortable inns while 
their men were left standing about, and at the end of 
twenty minutes left the friend, for whose companion- 
ship his hunger must have been quite unappeased, to 
join his platoon at a chilly railway station. 

Another token of his attitude towards the men ot 
his command is found in a passage from a letter to his 
wife, written January 31: 



a 



This morning I inspected the men's quarters, etc., and 
visited the sick in the infirmary, who seemed patheti- 
cally lonely. I sent them up some old 'Transcripts,' 
some of your candy, some checker sets, also sent some 
bouillon tablets and a barber to shave them and cut 
their hair, so to-morrow they '11 feel a little better. I 
love those visits to the hospital I make, I really feel 
I 'm doing something worth while because they 're all 
so glad to see you and so happy to feel some one is 
looking after them." 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 45 

When the war was over, a mechanic in his company 
talked about him in terms that bespoke a feeling which 
any officer might have been proud to excite : 

"There are white men in war, but they don't come 
whiter than the lieutenant that was of our platoon. 
His name was Ames and he was a Boston millionaire. 

" He was such a young kid. . . . But one thing 
about him, he was able to make us fellows of Co. A 
stand to attention with a snap, and march and drill 
like our life depended on it. 

" I don't know how he did it, but that kid made the 
whole company love him and follow him. We did n't 
need to swear it. Every man knew we 'd go to hell for 
Lieut. Ames. And we knew he would n't want us to do 
anything he would n't do himself. We went on march 
one day, with hardly a whole pair of shoes in the com- 
pany. The lieutenant wore only the uppers of his pair. 
The soles were gone a long time. He could have got 
others. He did n't have to march. But he said he would 
go with the company, and the company went with him. 

" Merit gets its reward, I guess, but the members 
of Co. A were sure sorry when Amesie got promoted 
to adjutant under Major 'Wild Bill' Donovan (now 
Colonel). . . . 



46 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

" Of course, being a millionaire, he was always flush. 
Us doughboys was almost always broke. But we never 
sponged on him. He used to come to us and ask if 
we were going into town. Some of the fellows had no 
money. He told them if they could strike him out, in 
no matter how many pitched balls, they could earn 
ten francs. There used to be a long line of fellows 
waiting to strike out Lieut. Ames. 

"He got c struck out' later. It was at Chateau- 
Thierry, I think. The boys of Co. A. did n't like to 
think over his death. He was a good scout, white as 
a white man should be and we were all sorry — well, 
sorry don't tell it." 

A letter written by Ames, after he had acquired some 
experience as a battalion adjutant, to a friend holding 
a corresponding position at Camp Devens will serve 
not only to explain his hold upon the men under him, 
but also to illustrate his thorough and serious appli- 
cation to the work in hand. The recipient of this letter 
showed it to his major, who was so impressed with its 
practical value that he caused copies of it to be placed 
in the hands of other adjutants as a guide to the best 
performance of their duties: 



Oliver A?nes, Jr. 47 

" Dear Bill : You 're darn right: I am a perfect bum 
not to have answered your bully letters before, and 
I have no excuse to offer except my own weakness as 
a poor correspondent; but I have appreciated your 
letters, and I do miss you an awful lot. 

" I keep wondering when your division will be com- 
ing over, soon I hope, it would be terrible to be a 
replacement division, and sincerely pray you 're not 
so fated. 

" Perhaps you won't mind a little advice in general, 
seeing you're a Batl. Adj. too — four things chiefly, 
discipline, cleanliness, officers, and organization, if you 
have all of these you have a good unit. Of course 
discipline you have had preached so often to you 
you are probably sick to death of it, but it can't be 
preached too much. It is your trump card. It mani- 
fests itself in military courtesy, close order drill, smart- 
ness in appearance, and execution of details, respect 
and obedience of privates to N. C.O.'s, action and 
order of men when in strange towns, and action under 
pressure — you will gain it by constant attention to 
detail, even the smallest. 

" Cleanliness is invaluable. A man's self-respect is re- 
tained. Over here the opportunities for bathing are few 
and far between. Left to themselves the men would 



48 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

never bathe. Force them to, every man in the bat- 
talion, every opportunity you get. Check them up on 
it. Keep a roster if necessary. Make every man in the 
battalion cut his hair close. Our whole battalion has 
their hair clipped tight. Jump like h — on any one 
unshaven, any one with a button unbuttoned or off, 
any one with a dirty uniform. (Incidentally, get your 
hob-nailed shoes well oiled and greased before you 
leave. The billets here in winter are so cold the shoes 
freeze and at reveille it sometimes takes a man twenty 
minutes to pull them on). 

"Officers and N. C. O.'s. The platoon leader is the 
most important officer in the war. You have got to 
develop him if your battalion is to be efficient, and the 
only way to develop him is by forever and forever 
checking up on him, driving him until he almost hates 
you; never let up on him. Hold him strictly respon- 
sible for the slightest irregularity in his platoon. But 
at the same time do it in a way that his initiative 
won't be killed; encourage him whenever possible. It 
is the tendency for the platoon leader after the drill 
hour is over to consider his work is over — but it is n't. 
He should be looking after the comfort of his men; 
his men should be his children, so to speak, and he 
should never think of himself until they are comfort- 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 49 

ably fed and quartered; he should be continually look- 
ing after them — aside from that a platoon leader's 
most important job is to develop his non-coms. If a 
company has good non-coms., it is bound to be a good 
company. In trench warfare without N. C. O.'s to 
depend on you 're lost. A lieutenant cannot be every- 
where at once, he will wear himself out. It 's the most 
satisfactory feeling in the world, however, to hold a 
sector, and feel you have men with you who can be 
depended on in a pinch, and who, if you are shot, 
can take the command of the situation where you left 
off. So give your non-coms, responsibility right away, 
develop them, and back them up to the limit. 

" Hold daily schools for officers and non-com. offi- 
cers; make the schools interesting, not monotonous. 
Make every officer attend,take up tactical theory; pound 
it in — not in its more complicated form, but in its fun- 
damentals. Make them study in their spare hours; they 
will growl, but it will count in the end. Make your 
captains handle their companies like the old-time bat- 
talions; don't let them do too much, make them put 
the responsibility on the platoon leaders and hold them 
strictly accountable. In the trenches ordinarily the cap- 
tain should not stir from his dugout, where he will 
receive the reports from his platoon sectors, forward 



so Oliver Ames, Jr. 

them to battalion headquarters and issue his orders 
accordingly. He is an administrator to the greatest 
extent and should organize his unit. In trench war- 
fare the captain must always be at his post, his dug- 
out. Therefore, he must develop early his officers and 
non-coms, to do the actual leading and fighting. 

"Administration and organization. You will find 
over here that the battalion is practically the old regi- 
ment. In the first place you have five companies in your 
battalion (one a machine gun company); in the sec- 
ond place, for lack of space each battalion is generally 
in a town by itself, sometimes as much as four or five 
miles from regimental headquarters, which makes it 
practically an independent unit, consequently necessi- 
tating administration. The paper work over here is 
frightful, just three times as bad as at home, and it 
seems to getworse everyday. We have two typewriters 
in our office and they are busy nearly all day. The tables 
of organization are utterly inadequate for the present 
headquarters, to my mind. I have far beyond the allow- 
ance, having a sergeant-major, three clerks, five order- 
lies, from headquarters company (three bicycle, two 
mounted) and eight orderlies from the companies (two 
from each company) and one mail corporal. Be sure 
and get, if you can, two good stenographers; they are 



Oliver A?nes, Jr. 5 1 

hard to get and invaluable. Perhaps you don't see 
why there is so much paper work — in the first place, 
being generally a separate unit, there are your supplies 
to consider, then there is your ammunition, also one 
hundred and one reports called for by A. E. F.and di- 
vision headquarters; there are countless investigations 
and claims that have to be made; there are your sum- 
mary court cases, there are your training memoranda, 
intelligence memoranda. When we first went into the 
trenches, being the first American battalion to go into 
that sector, there were all the French sector orders and 
reports to be translated (you probably won't have to 
bother with that, but the first four days in the trenches 
I never worked so hard in my life; all the French codes 
to be translated and the standing orders of each Poste 
d^Appui together with each centre of resistance) . Just 
to show you how much paper work there is in the 
battalion I want you to know that I have one trunk 
just full of old records and files which accumulated 
since we have been here, and that does not include all 
our present files which are bulky enough, Heaven 
knows. 

"Another thing though, if you want to save yourself 
a lot of bother, develop now two or three officers who 
can be used as Town Majors; have them study up 



52 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

the A. E. F. billeting regulations. It will take a load 
off your shoulders. Throughout, if you can arrange it, 
you want to help your companies out on paper work; 
when their pay-rolls, muster-rolls, etc., come in, have 
a man look them over for mistakes, and send them 
back for correction if necessary. In this way you help 
regimental headquarters and companies at the same 
time. I have reports submitted to me daily of the num- 
ber of men answering sick calls and the number marked 
duty; in that way you can check up on the sickness 
of your command, also on which company is trying 
to stall. Incidentally we have our sick call at the same 
time as mess call, and it has had wonderful success, cut- 
ting down the number answering sick call to a great 
extent. I also have daily menus from each company 
and have them entered in a book; then you can check 
up if a company is not getting enough vegetables, and 
if its menu is too monotonous. You '11 find it a good 
idea because a lot of the sickness over here is due to 
rotation, or rather lack of rotation, of food. Finally 
use every means at your command to increase the 
morale of your battalion. If their food is good, and 
their mail is in, they are generally content. At first your 
men will growl at the billets because they are damn 
cold and disagreeable, but soon they will get used to 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 53 

them. Use your company funds if practicable to buy 
the men extra food. Several of our captains before 
we went up first in the trenches bought a lot of con- 
densed heaters and steero cubes for each squad, and 
they were wonderful for the men on guard in the 
trenches on cold, wet nights. 

"The Y. M. C. A.'s over here are a blessing. The 
men flock to them, but when there are not any in a 
town get up your own battalion entertainment. There 
is always a lot of talent in the battalion, and they are 
always a success to let the men run them. Get the use 
of the regimental band as much as you can. Finally 
do everything in your power to increase the battalion 
esprit de corps. We have fast cross-country runs for 
prizes, every man in the battalion being forced to 
enter. We have inter-company sports, baseball games, 
etc. Some time ago, two officers and 27 men from our 
battalion pulled off a coup de main on the Germans 
(for which, incidentally, every officer and man volun- 
teered); every man that came back was given the Croix 
de Guerre when they came back to the town where the 
battalion was stationed. At retreat the battalion was 
assembled in close column of company with the Croix 
de Guerre men lined up facing them. Retreat was played, 
then the Major made a short speech, a bully one too, 



54 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

telling just what these men had done and how it was 
to be an incentive to the battalion, etc., and finally the 
whole battalion presented arms to them. It was the 
most impressive thing I have ever been in, and I almost 
wept. Those are the sort of things, though, that make 
your unit. 

" Well, I guess I have preached enough. Please for- 
give me. Perhaps you had better tear the letter up, but 
I thought you would like to get my impressions. 

" Needless to say though, I don't think I will ever 
get over being homesick. I don't believe I could stand 
it if it wasn't for the fact that you really don't get much 
time to think about yourself. Sometimes I think of the 
wonderful times we used to have. I wonder if you still 
say 'Hein' the way you used to, and you're still as 
' snoopy ' as ever. Oh, Bill, be sure and bring over 
'gingerbread' ! Do you remember the big stick in the 
corner of the room in North Easton, the one we pulled 
out of the ground the night of our party in the pine 
woods — a cane is absolutely necessary in the trenches. 

" Good-night, old fellow, write soon. 

As ever, O. A. 2." 

The letters to members of his family take up the story. 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 55 

" February 2 

" To-day I'm going to -in a side-car to see the 

chief of staff of our division on an errandfor the major. 
You ought to see how swell your son looks, his leg- 
gins, shoes, and S. B. belt polished so you can see your 

face in it. On the way back he 's going to stop at , 

a big town, where he 's going to revel in a shampoo 
and shave and perhaps a bath ; he 's a little doubtful 
and hazy about the bath, because it's a well-known fact 
that there 's a Frenchman serving a 70-year sentence 
in the Bastille for having taken one. 

u The last few days have been very busy ones ; we 've 
been having manoeuvres, etc., and on top of it we 've 
had all sorts of efficiency inspection down on top of 
us, but to the best of my knowledge we 've weathered 
the storm with the reputation of being the star battal- 
ion of the division, which is very satisfactory if true." 

"February 10 

" It's the most wonderful day to-day you can imagine, 
just like a May day at home; it made me feel like 
having a 'knock-up' with a baseball. It being Sunday 
I thought I might have a chance to write some let- 
ters (also the major being away), but no sooner had I 
sat down to write when I was absolutely swamped with 



$6 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

orders from division and regimental headquarters, and 
it 's only now (3 p.m.) that I 've got rid of them all. 

u Kayes has brought me in some tea and crackers; 
I can hear you groan, it must make you realize how 
much we suffer from hardships over here. 

" We 've been having manoeuvres here during the 
last four days, and during that time your son has been 
mounted on a steed, luckily a very old, tired, and di- 
lapidated steed, which fact has put new confidence in 
its owner as to his horsemanship, and he goes gallop- 
ing about the fields with 'rare' abandon. It is strange 
how an army saddle comforts one; it is so high both 
in front and back, and at the same time it seems to be 
more padded. The manoeuvres have been very inter- 
esting from the standpoint of tactics, but the slaughter 
has been frightful, companies at a time being wiped 
out by the decisions of umpires. Yesterday I saw a 
little, self-important umpire (a major) chasing a bat- 
talion of infantry across a field to tell them they were 
all dead, wiped out by a machine gun in ambush. They 
continued on oblivious of his shoutings, and just as he 
was about to reach them he stumbled in a hole and 
went 'head over teakettle' into the mud, emerging 
absolutely plastered amid the plaudits of friend and 
foe alike. . . . 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 57 

" I love my new job, Ma; it has stimulated my 
energy and ambition tremendously. There is a real 
tendency in military life to 'let down,' to take the 
path of least resistance; but an adjutant with a ' live' 
major has n't the opportunity or time to consider him- 
self at all ; his work is never finished, and to me it is 
absorbingly interesting and the most wonderful chance 
I '11 ever get to learn the tactical and administrative 
side of the game thoroughly." 

On April 1, the date of the letter from which the fol- 
lowing passages are taken, the 165th, having finished 
its service in the Luneville Sector a week before, moved 
into the Baccarat Sector. 

"It's pretty nearly 5 p.m. now, and just think, you 
haven't fooled your son yet with an April fool joke. 
It must be about the first time you have n't for a good 
many years. Are n't you disappointed ? 

" It almost seemed unbelievable that yesterday was 
Easter, and we had a fourteen mile hike in the rain. 
I could n't help thinking of a year ago when we all 
went to the Arlington Street Church, don't you re- 
member ? After church we met and walked 



58 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

home with her, after which your impulsive son sent 
her some violets. 

u We're in a rather nice town now, all shot to pieces 
in some parts, but on the whole quite modern. The 
major, Captain Mercier, and I are living in a very 
nice house. Kayes has the room next to mine, which 
also has a small stove, so last night your son had a 
delightful cup of hot tea in bed propped up with pil- 
lows. ' War is h — ,' is n't it ? . . . 

"I see General Pershing has offered the whole 
A. E. F. to stem the drive. Your son is extremely 
dubious whether he is going to like being a 'stem,' 
but for the sake of 'heroics' he is saying, 'Bully for 
General Pershing.' At any rate, I hope the French 
and English give those damn Dutchmen h — . 

" Have shaken my headquarters all around. Have 
got two new liaison men, very bright and energetic 
and young, also an old sergeant-major, very steady 
and dependable, who has been in the game for years, 
a»d who is a darn good influence on my impetuosity, 
or rather impetuousness. 

" I 've just finished interviewing a French lieutenant 
about the signals for an aeroplane bombardment, gun 
bombardment, and where the men are to take cover, 
so I can send it out to the C.O.'s. The signals are three 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 59 

blows on siren horn in night-time, and bugle call in 
daytime. He said there were no shelters versus shells 
except for a few trenches which would accommodate 
about 50 men in rear of barracks, all of which is very 
reassuring, seeing there are over 1000 men in the bat- 
talion." 

"April 25 
" Last night you almost lost your son: about 12.30 
he decided he 'd like to know just where the can- 
nonading (which was lively at that time) was coming 
from, so decided to walk where he could get a better 
view. On the way, however, he started to dream, and 
the first thing he knew, there was a bayonet at his 
throat. Naturally enough he decided to halt, and 
mighty abruptly, too; but for the life of me I could n't 
think of the countersign. The sentry was very much 
'on the job,' but aggravatingly so. It took me about 
ten minutes to convince him that I was n't a Boche : 
he was one of the new draft men. The darn fool never 
challenged, but was going to run me right through. 
To-night, believe me, I 'm going to do some careful 
'scouting' before venturing forth: it would be h — , 
would n't it, Ma, to be killed by one of your own 
men ? " 



60 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

"May 2 
" Your son has been very undutiful about writing the 
last week or so, but he is just out of the first line 
trenches, where he had a bully time. This time we 
'took over' from an American outfit which lessened 
to a great extent the amount of paper- work and trans- 
lation that had to be done before; also it gave me a 
chance to go on a patrol, on which I had the most 
wonderful time imaginable. I am convinced I 'd make 
a darn good patrol leader, solely due to the train- 
ing received in conjunction with my sister, O., in 
scouting the Boche (E. and Dick) through the wilds 
of 'Pike's Peak,' North Easton. Tell O. that I 
thought of our old scouting expeditions that night as 
I was crawling through No Man's Land, the only 
difference being that in North Easton there were no 
flares to make you throw yourself on your face, and no 
rifle shots occasionally going overhead to make you 
keep low; but in this case there was no sign of a Ger- 
man to be found, except a few shots, while at North 
Easton there was always the exhilaration of peeking 
around a tree at E. and Dick, even if they were abso- 
lutely ignoring us. Incidentally, I used to be much 
more excited in those scouts than I was the other day. 
The only time I was a little worried was going through 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 6 1 

our wire when the back of my breeches caught in a 
barbed wire, and my efforts to dislocate it made the 
wire ring a little, at the same time a German machine 
gun opening up in our general direction. Am con- 
vinced, though, it was just a coincidence, because they 
have a habit during a dark night of firing a few rounds 
every ten minutes or so, no matter if they see nothing. 

" This town, or rather its outskirts are fairly swarm- 
ing with guns : they 've been very busy the last twenty- 
four [hours] , consequently disturbing our rest greatly. 
In fact, all day to-day the houses have been shaking. 
I 'm wondering now whether there won't be some 
reprisal fire in the near future, which being the case 
your son is going to take to the woods because he 
does n't fancy the idea of houses crashing around 
him. 

" It 's been a perfectly beautiful day : the German 
aeroplanes have been trying all day to locate the bat- 
teries, but two French aeroplanes [have] been circling 
around driving them off. As I came out to lunch to- 
day, I found a group of Frenchmen in the field next to 
Headquarters laying out on the ground what looked 
like huge pieces of white canvas. Could n't imagine 
what they were doing until I looked up and saw an 
aeroplane flying above. Evidently the canvas was sig- 



62 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

nal panels, and each had its significance. In the room 
next to Headquarters is a radio and telephone station : 
every time a big gun would fire, it would be flashed 
back to this station, from which a relay of men ex- 
tended out to the field where the signal panels were 
laid. These would signal to the aeroplane the battery 
that had fired, and the aeroplane would observe the 
effect of fire, and flash the information by radio to the 
station, which would transmit it to the battery. Don't 
you think that's ingenious? " 

"May 10 
" Here I am down at the front. Col. McCoy called for 
the major to-night to take him down, so I jumped in 
with him. The major and colonel have gone into the 
company headquarters, so I thought I 'd better stay 
behind tactfully. I 'm in the guard-house now. This 
is the most fascinating place you've ever seen, a de- 
serted town right on the front lines. When our divi- 
sion first took over this sector, the first regiment here 
lost two men right in town from German snipers hid- 
ing in the houses and picking them off. Furthermore, 
the Germans had the audacity to run off with a hind 
of beef from one of our company kitchens. 

" When our battalion was here the colonel instituted 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 63 

a search every day of the houses, and never found a 
trace of a German. I must say, though, at night-time 
I 'd never come down here without a pistol. About 
two weeks ago Elmer and I went on a patrol coming 
back to our lines about 12 midnight. Coming back 
through the town on our way to battalion head- 
quarters, at the very same moment we both thought 
we saw a figure in a doorway with a leveled rifle. Both 
of us jumped a mile and put our hands on our re- 
volvers, but at the same time discovered it was — a 
bag of wood. Needless to say we were very much 
ashamed of ourselves, but it really is surprising how 
lifelike inanimate objects become in some surround- 
ings. There is a cemetery out in No Man's Land in 
front of one platoon sector : Lieut. Newton, the pla- 
toon leader, told me that at night-time his men had 
the gravestones riding horses and jumping fences. 

"Our battalion, being in support now, is doing a 
lot of engineering work, constructing trenches, build- 
ing dugouts, stringing wire, etc. I often wonder how 
fast our troops are coming over here. To me it is re- 
markable the way it has been kept quiet. It is a thrill- 
ing sensation to feel that they are actually pouring in as 
the rumor has it. Let 's hope it 's true. Now the thing 
is to get artillery and aeroplanes to support, because in- 



64 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

fantry is useless without artillery, and artillery useless 
without aeroplanes. 

" It 's a darn shame about the Liberty motor, 
though it 's a wonder to me we have n't made more 
mistakes. Ma, what I 'm wondering if the rumor of 
troops coming over here is true, how the deuce are they 
getting over ? How are they being fed and equipped ? 
Has our tonnage increased so wonderfully as all that ? 
Has the efficiency of our quartermaster and ordnance 
departments so advanced? . . . 

"Our battalion headquarters is now in the most 
beautiful place. Going out of the back door you come 
into this trench with apple trees and apple blossoms 
dropping over you, and lilac bushes also. 

u Have got to run now, hear the Col. coming." 

At this time Col. Frank R. McCoy, later promoted 
Brigadier- General, was in command of the 165th In- 
fantry. Writing to Ames's widow after his death, he 
told of dropping frequently into the P. C. of his old 
friend, Major Donovan, where, he said, u I found such 
interest and such keen soldierly spirit that I quickly 
knew all the men about him. During absences of my 
own staff officers I borrowed Lieut. Ames as my As- 
sistant Adjutant, and can vouch for his professional 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 6 5 

ability as well as his attractive personality. He showed 
this also at the Corps Centre of Instruction, where he 
stood at the head of his class." In the same letter Col. 
McCoy declared that he would have attached Ames 
permanently to his regimental staff but for the loss 
to Major Donovan, and that it was nevertheless his 
intention to make him one of his aides when the pro- 
motion which he knew to be at hand should be an 
accomplished fact. It was during one of the periods 
of service with Col. McCoy that Ames wrote the fol- 
lowing letter: 

" Wednesday, May 22 
" Your son is now sitting in the adjutant's office at 
Regt. Hqs. chafing at the bit: he hates his new job, 
though is thankful it won't last long so he can return 
to his battalion. 

" Yesterday, however, I had a bully time. There was 
a big manoeuvre, and in the absence of the Regt. adj. 
I acted in his capacity, being with the colonel all day 
and having consequently a very interesting time. The 
colonel was great, just as nice as he could be and at 
the same time wonderfully efficient — and he certainly 
kept me on the jump all day : don't think I sat down 
more than once in all. Was mounted on a great big 



66 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

hunter, about as tall as 4 Hamm' and about three times 
as stubborn. However, he was no match for his rid- 
er's skill and experience, and he soon had him tamed. 
You 'd be surprised, Ma, to see me on a horse now, as 
I 'm bold as brass (outwardly) ; even Col. McCoy with 
all his cavalry experience could n't down me yesterday. 
" It 's been awfully hot the last few days, and the 
flies are just beginning to come. North Easton must be 
bully now; I think about it often. When I think them 
over those four years at college were the best ever, es- 
pecially during the spring and autumn, coming out to 
North Easton every day and having such wonderful 
fun out there. Just think of the time we '11 have after 
all this is over ; we '11 have a crowd out there all the 
time, tag-football, squash, tennis, knock-ups, baseball, 
— cold baths, and last but not least, bully tall glasses of 
iced tea; after which I shall take some money out of my 
father in 'casino,' and a fall out of my mother in 'slap- 
jack' ; it 's all too wonderful to think about, is n't it? " 

"May 23 
" A German aeroplane caused the only excitement, fly- 
ing over the barracks for quite a while. Of course every 
one beat it for cover, but no bombs were dropped: 
think he was trying to take photographs. He was the 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 67 

bravest fellow I 've ever seen ; the aeroplane guns were 
shooting all around, but nothing seemed to phaze him 
as he just zigzagged around, flying quite low and for 
quite a long time. I honestly was glad to see him get 
away safely, he was so nervy. " 

The following sentences in a letter from Ames to his 
wife (June 29) speak for his readiness to acquire, at 
the Corps Centre of Instruction, points of knowledge 
not included in the programme of training: 

"To-day has been a 'scorcher,' the hottest yet, and 
they won't even let us take off our blouses marching 
about, which almost makes me insubordinate. How- 
ever, I am learning by experience what my men must 
suffer in like conditions, and next time will let them 
remove blouses. That is one of the advantages of 
this school, in that being a private you go through a 
private's feelings and don't lose touch with them, a 
dangerous tendency in officers ; and then on rejoining 
our outfits we will be so much more human and look 
so much more after our men's comfort." 

To his mother he wrote, July 6: 

" A few days ago the results of the five final examina- 
tions here were announced. I got three 'Excellents' 



68 Oliver Ames y Jr. 

and two 'Very goods,' which pleased me an awful 
lot. The only trouble is that there is a rumor that I 
may be an instructor at the next school, which I at- 
tribute to my marks. However, you bet your life they 
won't be able to get me. I should hate it, and I 'm sure 
I can 'worm' out of it: if I can't, I can raise the 
' Old Nick' till they let me go! ! However, I 'm hop- 
ing it 's just a rumor, because they have too darn many 
instructors here already." 

On the same day he wrote, on the same topic, to his 
wife: 

" Your cooney husband, knowing he got the highest 
mark in his platoon, decided he had better make him- 
self pretty scarce all day, so no one could find him. 
Consequently all day long he dodged instructors and 
high officials and to-night, thank the Lord, he heard 
that men were being picked only from every other 
platoon, and as ours is an even-numbered platoon I 
have escaped. You see I should hate nothing worse 
than being an instructor. In the first place I abhor 
teaching; in the second place it is terribly monoto- 
nous; in the third place you're apt to be kept at it all 
the rest of the war; in the fourth place you 're apt to 



Oliver A?nes, Jr. 69 

be shipped all over France as an instructor to differ- 
ent outfits ; and finally, in that case I would never get 
your letters or news from home." 

In the passages from Ames's letters that have been 
quoted, the ardent, effective soldier, the lovable, loving 
member of that generation of young men who expe- 
rienced as much of life in a single year as older gen- 
erations have known in three score, has spoken for 
himself — but only in part. His life was so deeply 
rooted in the affections that the urgency of his longing 
to return to the existence from which he had been 
torn by war, to his own people and cherished friends, 
to his wife, to the infant daughter of whose birth he 
had now learned, is something to be imagined rather 
than described. Perhaps it helped to make him the 
"very parfit, gentle knight" he was. The soundest 
loyalty finds many outlets of expression. In u Father 
Duffy's Story" one phase of it is suggested in a few 
words of the chaplain's about the relations between 
Major Donovan and Ames. Father Duffy says that 
he never had a dull moment with Donovan, and goes 
on, a His two lieutenants, Ames and Waller, are of a 
similar type; and as both are utterly devoted to him, 
it is a happy family. Ames takes me aside periodically 



70 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

to tell me in his boyish, earnest way that I am the 
only man who can boss the Major into taking care 
of himself, and that I must tell him that he is doing 
entirely too much work and taking too great risks, 
and must mend his evil ways. I always deliver the 
message, though it never does any good." This was 
written in June, while the regiment was still in the 
Baccarat Sector. Many weeks of hard fighting were 
ahead, especially in the Champagne- Marne Defensive, 
for its part in which the four rag ere was bestowed upon 
the regiment by General Gouraud, and the Aisne- 
Marne Offensive, on the fourth day of which, at the 
crossing of the Ourcq, in the series of bitter engage- 
ments which definitely marked the turning of the 
tide against the Germans, Ames lost his life, July 29, 
1918. 

It has been said at the beginning of this memoir 
that he lost it in the volunteered personal service of 
his superior officer. A letter from Major Donovan 
himself describes the circumstances in terms which 
would make any restatement of them superfluous. But 
portions of two letters from Ames in his final days at 
the front should first be read. On July 24 he wrote 
to his wife: 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 7 1 

" I keep wondering if you got my last letter, written 
on the 14th of July.* I 'm worrying about it because 
I sent it forward the very night the Germans tried 
their big push at Champagne, in which our division 
fought. Consequently, in the rush and confusion of the 
next few days, I 'm awfully afraid it was lost. 

"I 've been thinking of you and the baby so much 
the last ten days. Is n't it wonderful to have a daughter ? 
It has made me so happy and 'swelled headed.' My 
natural inclination is to go around boasting about my 
child, but so far I have contained myself pretty well, 
but how long I can do it I don't know. I can hardly 
wait for your next letter. 

" I feel terribly about not writing for so long, but 
we 've been through a whirlwind programme, first 
pushing back the Germans at Champagne, in which 
our battalion did n't have such an active part as the 
other two battalions as we were supporting them, and 
didn't get the actual fighting but only the shelling 
which kept us busy enough; secondly, we were taken 
out of the line suddenly there and shipped up here by 
train. Going through the outskirts of Paris we got a 
wonderful reception from the people; from the train 

* This and other letters written near the end were unhappily never 
received. 



72 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

we disembarked and hiked 21 kilometres here. The 
next move, to-morrow, looks as if we were moving 
to relieve Willis's outfit, which has been in the thick 
of it up in this region. There, in a nutshell, is what I 
have been doing lately. 

" To-day has been such a bully day, the sort of day 
it 's wonderful to be alive, bright and sunny and every 
one in a good mood. 

" I 've got to run off now with the Major to Divi- 
sion Hqs.,but I '11 write again to-morrow. Kiss the baby 
for me and tell her how her father longs to see her. 

"P.S. Did I tell you that Col. MacArthur (now 
General MacArthur) about a week ago wanted me 
to be his aide — or rather, Capt. Wolfe of Div. Hqs. 
came to see the Major, and wanted me to be Mac- 
Arthur's aide (you see I knew Wolfe before and he 
evidently recommended me) ; but I don't think I 'd 
like it." 

On July 25 he wrote, on sheets of " U. S. Army Field 
Message" paper, to his parents: 

" I 'm grabbing a second to write while waiting for 
the camions to come. We 're off this time for some real 
fun, as we hope to continue pushing the Germans 



Oliver A?nes, Jr. 73 

back. Our division arrived here from Champagne day 
before yesterday, and had a good rest yesterday, so 
you see we 're seeing all the action : Champagne was 
fine : they could n't gain an inch against us. We got 
a wonderful compliment from General Gouraud, and 
now if we can only do the same thing, it will be per- 
fect. The men are fine, full of enthusiasm and keen 
for another scrap; they're wonderful! . . . 

u Incidentally they say there is some mail in at Divi- 
sion Hqs. I do hope they '11 shoot it up to us quick. . . . 
I 'm the proudest father you 've ever seen, and the 
happiest. . . . 

" I 've got to run now, as I hear the camions com- 
ing. Will write again soon. 

Your loving 

Ollie. 

"Best love to Snoops and Pepper — I miss them — 
love to 'Ting,' too. Good for Dick! The Intelligence 
is a bully branch to be in." 

The letter from Major Donovan describing these days 
and the last of all was dated September 4, 1918: 

u I have no desire to intrude upon your grief. I have 
refrained from writing until you should be in receipt 



74 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

of the citation for the Distinguished Service Cross. It 
was the one thing that I could do to very inadequately 
obtain some recognition of the magnificent work done 
by your husband. I had hoped all along that I might 
have a quiet moment to write you carefully and fully 
of the last few days of your husband. The hours, how- 
ever, are still very crowded and now I must hasten to 
get you word, because one cannot tell when one's own 
day is coming. 

"It is difficult to express all that I feel. I cannot 
hope to tell you how deeply I sympathize with you. 
Your husband was a most devoted and loyal Adjutant. 
I know that in no battalion here was there the spirit 
and comradeship that we had, and there can be no 
question but that his unstinted loyalty served as the 
real example for all the officers in the command. But 
more than the feeling of respect and admiration for his 
qualities as a soldier and a gentleman, there was be- 
tween us an even deeper relation. To me he was like 
a younger brother. I should like if I could, to send 
you some picture of his last few days, so that you 
could truly visualize the real nobility of his leaving us. 

" I remember very well on the night of July 24th, 
we walked from our little town on the Marne to a 
place called La Ferte where I waited while he finished 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 75 

writing to you. He was full of eagerness for the fight, 
but was very determined that that letter should be 
sent to you. I am glad now, because that was probably 
your last word from him. We missed our automobile 
ride and had to walk home. We knew that it was 
going to be a hard fight that we were going into, and 
that our battalion would be picked for the most dif- 
ficult job. I told him that we both had to consider 
that we might finish there. . . . 

" On the 25th we went by camion to Epieds. The 
road was crammed with all kinds of marching troops, 
huge artillery, and supply trains, and the air was filled 
with airplanes and balloons. It was like a country cir- 
cus and Oliver was like a youngster at it; enjoying 
every minute. That night he and I crawled in under 
the bare boards of an ambulance and managed to get 
two hours' sleep. The next day while I was at the front 
making a reconnaissance, he marched up the entire 
battalion to the regulating station and handled every- 
thing like an old soldier. That night we made relief, 
finishing about three o'clock on the morning of the 
27th, and at eight o'clock, we found the Germans re- 
tiring. Of course there was a great scramble and very 
much to do, and a general pushing forward of the line. 
With all the demands upon him, in spite of my insist- 



j 6 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

ency, he performed his duties with tact and precision, 
with unfailing good nature and courtesy for every 
one. This in spite of the fact that he had no sleep for 
the entire night. After a day of pursuit, we came in 
front of Sergy about seven o'clock that night. We sus- 
tained a heavy bombardment and some losses, yet he 
was all over the field, spreading cheerfulness wherever 
he went, and brave — very brave. That night on the 
edge of a wood, we managed to lean against a tree 
together and get an hour or two of sleep. Before dawn 
he was up again. When I wanted to be certain of any- 
thing being done, I called upon him. I wish I could tell 
you the tremendous amount of work he did; how al- 
ways he was able to get things done with higher com- 
manders, that other officers would only antagonize. 

" On the morning of the 28th, we advanced our 
whole battalion of a thousand men two kilometres 
across the Ourcq on a narrow plank and took a posi- 
tion on the hill. I shall never forget how he looked 
that morning. I left him in command of the Head- 
quarters Detachment, which marched at the head of 
our support. I was ahead waiting at the river. I can 
see him now, charging down the slope at the head of 
his group, like a young football captain bringing his 
team on the field. 



1 



la 




Oliver Ames, Jr. 7 7 

"All that day he was cool, resourceful and unspar- 
ing of himself. We held the hill all that day and night, 
although we had nothing on either of our flanks, and 
Oliver and I managed to get one hour's refreshing 
sleep in a hole that he and my orderly, Kayes, dug 
out. Oliver, by the way, had no overcoat, but had, as 
always, the sweater that you knitted for him. Early 
again the next morning we started out to advance. The 
elements on our right and left failed to move forward 
and we pushed on, driving the Germans back slowly. 
I shall always be glad for one thing that I did. Our 
forward lines were held up and I called to your hus- 
band, who was a little behind me, and had him lie 
down behind a little mound of earth. I then told him 
what fine work he had been doing and that he had 
saved a good many lives for the battalion, and that I 
was not going to forget it. We were together from 
that time on until I heard that an officer in charge of 
the first group of troops had been wounded. I told your 
husband to take charge of Headquarters, that I was 
going forward. I went forward alone. As I ran through 
machine gun fire, I heard a running behind me and 
turned, and saw Oliver coming. I told him to go back. 
He said 'No,' that he was going to take care of me. 
I lay down by a little creek and he came over beside 



78 Oliver Ames., Jr. 

me. A sniper, undoubtedly trying for me, hit him in the 
right ear. He died at once, painlessly. 

u I would gladly that I had been the one and he had 
been spared to you. Not only did I feel it then, but each 
day more strongly. I regret his death — deeply regret 
it. But after all it is a very proud regret. . . . To all 
his friends, and they were from the Commanding 
General to our newest private, he has left a rich and 
loving memory. 

"I am, 

Very respectfully, 

Donovan." 



The picture is completed by a brief passage from 
"Father Duffy's Story": 

" Major Donovan, never happy unless in the middle 
of things, had gone up the bed of the brook so as to 
keep ahead of the advance of C on the left and A on 
the right. Lieutenant Ames, his Adjutant, was with 
him, led by devotion as well as duty, for the Major 
was his ideal leader. They lay half in the brook, rest- 
ing on the bank, when a sniper's bullet from the farm- 
yard whizzed past Donovan's ear and struck Ames in 
the head, liberating for larger purposes a singularly 
attractive and chivalrous soul. 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 79 

"Lieutenant Connelly tells of coming up with Ser- 
geant Tom O'Malley and Corporal Gribbon to re- 
ceive orders from the Major about taking over the 
line from Company C. He did not know just where 
to find him until he met Bootz going down the brook 
bed with his faithful attendants. Following up the 
stream he found Donovan still in the water with Ames's 
body by his side. The Major also has received a bullet 
wound in the hand. Nearby, Pete Gillespie, whose 
machine gun was out of order, was absorbed in the 
game of getting the sniper who had killed the Lieuten- 
ant. All stopped to watch him and his rifle. Pete set- 
tled down, intent on a dead horse near the farm. Sud- 
denly he saw something had moved behind it. He 
cuddled his rifle, waited, and fired. They could see the 
sniper behind the horse half rise, then drop. The be- 
loved Lieutenant was avenged." 

In addition to these narrations there is a portion of 
a letter from Brigadier- General McCoy (Colonel of 
the 165th when the Battle of the Ourcq was fought), 
which brought to Lieutenant Ames's widow some 
points of significant detail : 

"My 3d Battalion,Major McKenna,went over at day- 
break and reached their objective without great loss, 



80 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

but their fighting Irish got the better of them and 
they streamed up the open slopes to take Boche ma- 
chine guns with their hands and teeth and as a bat- 
talion were soon finished; so that the 1st Battalion 
was ordered to make a passage of the lines. Ames 
came to my P. C. under very heavy fire for final or- 
ders, and took them back to Donovan, who with him 
soon appeared and led that battalion over the open 
valley so skillfully — he and Ames never handled a 
football eleven better — that with comparatively small 
loss they reached the heights around the Meurcy Farm 
and the following day the Bois Colas beyond the 
farm, where they were the arrow point of the whole 
Franco-American line for four days and nights of bit- 
ter fighting. During the advance to the Bois Colas, 
Ames was struck by a machine gun bullet which killed 
him instantly by Donovan's side. I worked my way 
out that afternoon, and found Donovan determinedly 
planning and fighting, but feeling as though he had 
lost his right hand. On return to my P. C. I felt so 
keenly myself that I never mentioned Ames's death 
even to Preston, but he heard of it that night and 
without telling me went out to the front to see that 
his body had been handled with loving care and to 
place his grave. There was no need of that, for the 1st 



Oliver Ames, Jr. 8 1 

Battalion had buried him with honor near where he 
fell. After the fight Preston and I visited the graves of 
Ames and Sergeant Joyce Kilmer, our bard, lying 
side by side, and before that the men of the 1st Bat- 
talion had put them in becoming order and had grassed 
the graves and marked them with crosses; no orders 
of mine were needed. 

" Lieut. Ames had just been promoted to 1st Lieu- 
tenant on the recommendations of all three Battalion 
Commanders, and since his death has been awarded 
the D. S. C. by the Commander-in-Chief, also on 
the decided recommendations of his immediate Com- 
manders. 

"I shall always share both your pride and your 
grief." 

The Distinguished Service Cross, in which Ames's 
ultimate act of valor received its formal recognition, 
was awarded in the following terms: 

" During the fighting at Meurcy Farm, near Villers- 
sur-Fere, France, July 27-28, 1918, his heroic leader- 
ship was an inspiration to his command. He fought 
gallantly until on the last day he was killed while going 
forward voluntarily through machine-gun and snipers' 
fire to the assistance of his battalion commander." 



82 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

In his native city of Boston, the open space at the 
intersection of Commonwealth Avenue with the Fen- 
way Park has received the name of" Oliver Ames, Jr., 
Square." 

His friends continue to speak of him as a being 
apart from all the other young men they have known 
— a symbol of unfolding manhood at its best, an ideal 
of what might have seemed the unattainable had he 
not so simply, so without any assumption of superior- 
ity, attained it. They write of him, they lead another 
to write of him, in a vein that would appear extrav- 
agant but that every token, every document, supports 
their testimony. Their words — and there are many 
that might be quoted — all tell the same story. Two 
expressions of this common feeling may speak for 
many. The first came from a contemporary: 

"He was clean and upright as a young god; he was 
without a single 'manly' vice; no wonder his major 
wrote so gloriously of him. No one ever caught Ollie 
in an unfair trick— he played every game and every 
moment true and square and to the end." 

The second is in a letter already drawn upon — from 
the headmaster of St. Mark's School: 



^5 



Si 




Oliver Ames, Jr. 83 

" When the war came he never doubted that the call 
was for him. He answered in the noil strength of his 
ideals, ready to give up all he loved best, no matter 
what the sacrifice might cost. We knew that he would 
acquit himself just as he did, and would be in the 
front of the charge, he could not do otherwise. 

" I think of OUie as the valiant knight of old, with 
unsullied shield, without fear and without reproach, 
leaving all for service in a great cause and giving his 
life in a great sacrifice. In spite of our sorrow, we can 
be glad that his life was complete. Such a life as his 
cannot die." 

In the hearts of his friends this life lives on, an em- 
blem of that perfection of which it is said that "in 
short measures life may perfect be." More than one 
must have felt that the spring and summer of 1918, 
when the indestructible remainder of nature in France 
was breaking forth into the fullness of beauty, sym- 
bolized the spirit of the young men of our fighting 
forces. They were winning, and they knew it. What 
they were contributing to the effort of their wearied 
allies was beginning to turn the tide. Nobody could 
longer count the enemy unconquerable, or doubt the 
final achievement of victory. The waves of success 



84 Oliver Ames, Jr. 

were mounting higher and higher. On the crest of one 
of the first and highest of them, Oliver Ames gave his 
uttermost. Cut off from so much that he would have 
enjoyed and adorned, he was cut off also from the dis- 
appointments and disillusions that for many of his 
comrades in arms have followed the victory. Neither 
for him nor for those who loved him was there any 
marring of the brief perfection. 

"All that life contains of torture, toil, and treason, 
Shame, dishonor, death, to him were but a name. 
Here, a boy, he dwelt through all the singing season 
And ere the day of sorrow departed as he came.'* 



It is intended to include this memoir, reduced in 
length especially by the omission of passages better 
suited to private than to general circulation, in 
the third volume of the "Memoirs of the Harvard 
Dead in the War against Germany." 



